Hello boys, girls, women, men - people, as of right now the market squad is looking to pick up some new recruits to one day become real staff members! You'll join me the current, experienced, msquad team and be watched and guided through the trial process until you're ready to be promoted.

The Job
The job of a market squad staff members is to moderate the Market section of the forums, as well as to investigate cases of scam that are posted in Scam Reports.

Be aware that the position requires a good knowledge of the market board rules (yes I know theres quite a few) since this is the area of the forum we have to enforce, and is extremely active. Keep this in consideration when deciding to apply.

How to Apply
The application format is free-form, but please include any languages you are competent in.

Send all your applications to SmallBowl, Life, FMA05 or Icky. Other market squad members are not receiving applications due to inactivity, as a result sending your applications to them may result in you not being considered.

DO NOT POST YOUR APPLICATIONS HERE!

The recruitment period will close whenever we've gotten a satisfactory amount of applications. When that happens it will be announced here and this thread will be closed.

Notes
After you have sent in your application and/or after apps are closed, keep in mind that it will still be some time until new trials are announced. Please do not pm myself or other squad members asking about the status of your application. Applications that have been accepted will receive a PM stating so and will receive instructions on what to do from this point forward as a trial market squad member.

Due to the number of applications we get, we are unable to provide individual feedback on applications.

If you have any general questions, please post them in this thread. "Good luck/I sent my app" posts will get you infracted, your post deleted, and possibly have your application discarded.

Good luck!

[11:49.10] <Scorp> i wish they would ban the chinese
Please note, this quote was not taken out of context

Last edited by SmallBowl; May 9, 2017 at 06:22 PM..
Reason: throwing my name in for more options + fixing typo

In general how long does the average trial period last?
If you don't know everything considering the market, but know decently a good amount, will you learn along the way of becoming a full member?
Let's say a member applies, and get's trial, how would you know you got past your trial other than of course seeing a sign by your name ingame and your name being green?

More market related questions:

Is there any specific rules/errors/goofs that the trials/new members should look out for mostly, in other words, are there any common things that happen a decent amount we should be aware of when moderating? I understand if you can not answer this publicly.

In your honest opinions how active would said applicants need to be in order to have decent chances?

I would apply but shmevin recently told me that it's close to impossible to let me in msquad because of my shitposts in the market section :'c

It would've been great to have me in since I can spot a scam from a banana away

I guess I'll just try to stop my shitposting for awhile and apply when I don't have as much infracs

Not my exact words. I stated that the amount of infractions you have received recently serves as a good indication of your knowledge of Market rules. How could we expect you to enforce the rules if you are not able to follow them yourself? You may have good intentions, but Market Squad is responsible for more than just solving scam reports.
This same logic applies to anyone interested in becoming a Market Squad member. Please consider how well you know Market rules, as well as your ability to spot inappropriate posts.

Originally Posted by Space

Good luck to all members, on a side note a question:

(1.) In general how long does the average trial period last?
If you don't know everything considering the market, but know decently a good amount, (2.) will you learn along the way of becoming a full member?
Let's say a member applies, and get's trial, (3.) how would you know you got past your trial other than of course seeing a sign by your name ingame and your name being green?

More market related questions:

(4.) Is there any specific rules/errors/goofs that the trials/new members should look out for mostly, in other words, are there any common things that happen a decent amount we should be aware of when moderating? I understand if you can not answer this publicly.

(5.) In your honest opinions how active would said applicants need to be in order to have decent chances?

1. Trial periods are not limited to a specific time frame. Generally speaking you can expect a decision to be made after about a month of being a trial. This amount of time may be shorter for those who learn fast or perform very well, or longer for those who need it.

2. Regardless of your market experience, there are things you can only learn as a trial, so don't be discouraged if you aren't a full time marketeer. Market experience definitely helps you if you were to apply, but it is not a requirement. As a trial you will learn how to solve reports, moderate the forums, and perform certain tasks. You're also encouraged to ask full Market Squad members for help or advice.

3. If you are a trial member who is promoted to full, you will be notified.

4. I'd say the most important thing to remember is to ask for help when you are uncertain of what to do. It's better to ask for help than to make the wrong call, especially when it comes to infractions, bans, or the contents of someone's inventory. Other than that there isn't much to be worried about as long as you read the tutorial threads provided to you.

5. We understand that everyone's schedule and obligations are different, but trials definitely need to have some free time set aside to learn the ropes. Expect to dedicate several hours a week to your position.

In general how long does the average trial period last?
If you don't know everything considering the market, but know decently a good amount, will you learn along the way of becoming a full member?
Let's say a member applies, and get's trial, how would you know you got past your trial other than of course seeing a sign by your name ingame and your name being green?

More market related questions:

Is there any specific rules/errors/goofs that the trials/new members should look out for mostly, in other words, are there any common things that happen a decent amount we should be aware of when moderating? I understand if you can not answer this publicly.

In your honest opinions how active would said applicants need to be in order to have decent chances?

"In general how long does the average trial period last?"The average trial period from my experiences can be from 2 weeks, all the way to 2 months. I'd say any further than that you'd probably be removed from a trial if you've not already shown that you're ready to become Full MS.

"If you don't know everything considering the market, but know decently a good amount, will you learn along the way of becoming a full member?"
Of course you would, and you'd best learn it as fast as possible to make sure you do make it to full but Msquad members are usually fairly helpful when training. (from my experience and me training some people)

"are there any common things that happen a decent amount we should be aware of when moderating?"
From my experience as MSquad the most common infractions I gave out were for "Useless posts" that don't actually involve the buying or selling of items happen a bit, as well as the rule that you're not allowed to try and sell something on the forum if it's not in your inventory (items on the market are not considered as in your inventory, and therefore can't be sold on a thread until removed from the market).

For the flame section, it's usually people not including screenshots or not including everything that is "required" by the market rules when creating a flame thread. Same goes with Art threads, people tend to leave out something that is required for the thread to be "allowed".

In your honest opinions how active would said applicants need to be in order to have decent chances?
You should probably make yourself available every day possible by being on the IRC channel, or checking your PMs every day.
Also, you should be fairly active on the forum. Whether that be just to check your PM box, Ban Appeals, Scam Reports, Reports, etc.

Considering they are recruiting, most of their members at the moment aren't as active as they'd like them so key thing. TL: DR be more active than the inactiveish MSquad members already in place.

Those are my answers to your questions and I hope that kinda gives you some perspective and answers to some questions you had.

The potential within the community for active members with a clear background and interested in staff jobs is rather depleted, even more so given the recent ES drive. You might want to specify whether you are more keen than usual on taking the apps from people that already applied for aformentioned position earlier or is it still frowned upon - given ES got two waves already, I reckon it's fine but you might as well confirm (or deny) it.
Hopefully you'll get promising apps but do bear in mind that it is but a half measure and you'll find yourself in the same spot relatively soon-ish unless some reorganization of how the team functions on a more basic level happens (f.ex. keeping inactive guys for the sake of appearences and to achieve ,,desireable" amount of people while only fraction of them actually work won't fix much - introducing proper evaluation mechanisms, that work both ways - lead to team, team to lead, could be a good first step).
k, /rant, before I produce several paragraphs of text noone will ready anyway

Anyhow couple of things about the job itself for potential candidates:
- It is a good choice for people that spend quite a bit time of forums anyway and lurk via mobile a lot - you can solve some reports on the spot, in a bus, train, while shopping etc. Mobile irc client helps quite a bit as well (not to say you cannot be an active player and a squid - sure you can, but the forum part and irc availability is a crucial thing)
- If you want to see if you are cut for the job, try going into market section and look for the posts that break the rules - if you find any (remember to read the rules carefully and always check whether the post truly breaks them) you are 100% sure of, use the report button and send a report with a proper reason (f.ex - This post breaks ,,D) Account selling and trading is forbidden, if you are caught trading accounts you will be banned" rule). It is a good training as while giving potential infraction you'll be expected the give the basis (the rule) for the infraction anway. After a while you'll remember most of them.
- Dargon's guide to app writing is great but people still ignore it because tl;dr so let me just stress one thing - do not write your whole life story, keep the app relatively short, with the relevant information (experience with moderating, GMT, languages, usually activity periods, reasons for applying).
- Do not underestimate the job - moderating can be tricky, some cases can take days to solve and hours to investigate, digging through dozens of pages of trans history is exhausting, solving many reports in a row can really take its toll on you - consider if you are willing to commit your time and resources to it. Be prepared to be lied to, shouted at and treated with discrespect by the people you are trying to help, warning or infracting.
- If you get in, ask about everything you are not sure about - and even if you are sure about something, ask full MS member about it anyway. You want to doublecheck everything, untill it becomes your second nature.